Premium
Object number2015.20.12
MediumPaper/Ink/Metal/Glass/Mercury
Credit LineGift of Mary Antol
DescriptionHelpy's Tavern promotional postcard with thermometer. Rectangular paper premium featuring a colored winter landscape scene with trees, bushes, and snow. Thermometer in the top right corner. Rectangular banner at bottom center has the tavern's information. Framed in gold metal frame with glass glazing and cardboard backer.Dimensions5.375 x 7.125 x 0.375 in. (13.7 x 18.1 x 1 cm)InscriptionsThermometer in the top right corner has surrounding numerals to measure Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures.
Rectangular banner at bottom center has black printed text "Compliments of / FRANK HELPY'S TAVERN / 118 Center Ave. Pitcairn, Pa. / Phone Pitcairn 9470".
Historical NotesFrank Helpy (born Francesco Apa) immigrated to McKees Rocks in 1897 at the age of five and he attended the Irish Catholic grade school where the nuns changed his last name from "Apa" to "Helpy." He went back and forth between the United States and Italy as a young man; during one of his return visits to San Donato, he married Filomena Capolupo. Helpy operated a cobbler shop in Pitcairn to support his wife and four children in Italy. When the political situation in Europe became tense in the 1930s and Fascism was on the rise in Italy, Frank decided his family should relocate to live with him in Pitcairn. Frank eventually closed his cobbler shop and opened Helpy's Tavern and operated it until his death in 1966, after which his daughter Rosalie and her husband, Joseph Cordasco, took over the bar until it's closing in 1993.
Previous owner
Frank Helpy
(died 1966)
Related institution
Frank Helpy's Tavern
On View
Not on view
Superior Match Company
1930-1957
c. 1900
